"Okay, take it easy. Deep breaths," Emily reassured the girl who had just collapsed in her arms.

"Breathing…bad idea…hurts," mumbled Adriane. She tried to laugh at herself, but winced again. Drops of blood bloomed like red flowers on the wooden floors of Ravenswood Manor's library.

The mirror portal, through which Adriane had stumbled just moments before, shimmered uneasily in its ornate silver frame. As always, it reflected the fear and magical mayhem of everyone surrounding it.

"Where are you hurt?"

"Side and back…the right."

The couches sat on the other side of the room—no way Emily could carry her that far. Dreamer, uninjured, whimpered from a few feet away. He stood back to give them space.

"I'm going to put you down now, okay?"

Emily slowly knelt and eased Adriane to the floor. She lay on her good side, weak as a dead tree and nearly the same ashen color. Emily lifted her torn black tank top, shining wet with blood, and grimaced.

Four deep gashes marred her torso. Claw marks. Emily froze with the same cold panic she'd felt almost three years ago, when she healed her first injured animals. So much blood. Like rubber bands, the wounds stretched and slackened with Adriane's labored breathing. But it wasn't so much the gore that horrified her; it was Adriane's wide eyes staring into space, full of nothing but raw pain.

Emily snapped out of it. The longer she sat stupidly paralyzed, the more her friend suffered. "Hang in there. Just a few seconds, and it won't hurt anymore." She almost asked Adriane about what had happened, but if breathing hurt that much, then talking must have been excruciating.

Her jewel pulsed pale blue light as she latched onto Adriane's torn aura. She closed her eyes and imagined magic, muscle, flesh, and skin knitting themselves back together, back to normal, free of scars, and free of pain. Adriane gasped, and then let out a long low sigh of relief.

Emily opened her eyes to smooth tan skin, unmarked by anything to suggest that it had ever been ripped open.

"Feel better?"

Adriane nodded. "Let me just…lie here for a second. Get used to not hurting."

"Do you want to talk about what happened?"

"Nothing drastic. Just some rogue gargoyles on our way back from Dalriada. Bastards snuck up on me." Adriane frowned. "That's what I get for not paying attention to my surroundings, huh?"

Already, Adriane was almost back to her usual self, but Emily was still deeply disturbed by seeing her so vulnerable. She'd healed far worse injuries, but there was something uniquely terrifying about seeing her closest friend in agony, with or without magical healing powers on hand.

"Hey, you're in better shape than I would've been." Indeed she was. Adriane was the warrior, the strongest of all of them. The web was mostly safe and stable nowadays, but if something like that could happen to her, then what did that mean for Emily, Kara, and everyone else?

Adriane propped herself up on her elbows, her side and midriff still exposed. She smiled and said "Yunno, I'm reckless because I think that you'll always be here to patch me up."

"God, I hope so. Without you, I would've been dead five times over." Adriane paused and studied her own blood on the floor. "I don't thank you enough. I don't know if I've ever told you just how important you are."

Emily could only react by throwing her arms around Adriane in a tight hug.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

I can't believe I haven't updated this fic in nearly a year. It doesn't feel like that much time has passed. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. I was aiming for an on-the-surface friendship fic with a tiny bit of femslash subtext. Adriane/Emily is a cute pairing, though Adriane/Kara is definitely still my favorite.

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.